Hypothetical Situations
by kathillards
Summary: Of all the things to do in a bakery, buying cupcakes was first on Emily's list and discussing her hypothetical ideal guy was somewhere near dead last. - Oneshot - Samurai - Jayden/Emily -


**Disclaimer: Saban owns PR.**

**Spoilers for Episode 6: "There Go The Brides", takes place after the end of the episode.

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**"Who were those two?" Emily wonders as she and Jayden stand by the bakery counter, waiting for their orders. "They seem familiar."

Jayden sends her a curious look. "They do? I don't recognize them. Did you maybe go to school with the boy?"

Emily shakes her head, drumming her fingers on the glass display case. "Not that I can recall. He's kind of cute, though."

A moment of silence goes by before she realizes that Jayden hasn't replied to her comment and glances over at him to find him staring at the cakes sitting in the display case with a half-incredulous, half-mutinous expression on his face.

"Really?" he says finally, shattering the silence with the single word, and, if she's not mistaken, he sounds rather annoyed. "I wouldn't have thought short and scrawny was your type."

Emily frowns, batting away a loose blond curl from her face. "Don't be mean, Jayden. He seemed perfectly nice. You shouldn't judge people on how they look."

Jayden swallows. "Right. Sorry. I didn't mean to – I just – well, he still doesn't strike me as your type."

She folds her arms, trying to battle down an amused smile in the face of his frustration. "And what, exactly, is my type, Jayden?"

He freezes, his blue eyes darting every which where but refusing to look at her. From her angle, it's not hard to see that Jayden himself looks exactly the opposite of the boy they had just passed – tall, muscular, incredibly handsome—never mind.

"I don't know," he mumbles finally. "Um, I think your order's here."

Emily glances to the counter and sees a waitress holding out a plate with a lemon-frosted cupcake on it. "Thanks!" she chirps, taking the plate from the girl.

"Your order's coming right up," the waitress tells Jayden, who nods and returns to his examination of the cakes in the display case.

"Oh!" Emily gasps in realization. "I just remembered where I've seen them before. Those two, haven't they tried to fight Moogers before? They said something about training to be samurai in that battle we had two weeks ago, where they tried to help us."

Jayden frowns. "Maybe," he says noncommittally. "I can't say I remember them, though."

"Well, I remember them," she says confidently, hopping up onto a stool halfway between Jayden and the table Mike, Mia, and Kevin had claimed and were eating at. "They're not very good, but they were very brave facing off those Moogers without any powers."

"Oh, so, it's _brave_ guys you like," he remarks, raising an eyebrow.

Emily nearly chokes on her lemon frosting, her cheeks flushing (because there's no way anyone can say that Jayden isn't brave). "I didn't say that," she protests. "I just – why does it matter?"

"It doesn't," Jayden says, half-grinning. "I was curious, that's all."

"Curious about what?" she presses, taking a bite of her cupcake, her hazel eyes still fixed on him.

Jayden takes a moment to reply. "Your type of guy," he answers finally, looking anywhere but at her.

"You're curious about _my_ type of guy?" Emily asks incredulously, a smile playing on her lips. "Says the one who pretended to get married twice today! What would you say if I asked you about your type of girl, huh?" she teases.

He grins, his gaze darting back to her. "Hypothetically, I'd tell you that, oddly enough, pretending to get married didn't actually make me think about marriage all that much."

"In that case," she giggles, "I'd say that's because you're too focused on fighting nighlocks to think about silly stuff like romance and weddings, aren't you?"

Jayden looks almost offended, but the effect is ruined by his grin. "I am _not_. I mean, all right, maybe I thought about it a little. Certainly not to the degree you girls did."

"Don't stereotype," she chides him, biting her lip to hide a smile. "We're not constantly thinking about that, either. But don't you ever think about what the girl you're going to eventually marry will be like?" For a moment, a memory of herself dressed in a wedding gown swims in her mind, superimposed on top of a memory of Jayden and Mia pretending to get married and – oh, no, not going there.

He hops up onto a nearby stool that's been vacated. "Sometimes," he admits. "I mean, I suppose it all depends on whether or not we win."

"We'll win," she states, infusing her voice with a confidence she doesn't completely feel. "Don't worry about that."

Jayden flashes her a grin. "Yeah. With two Samurai Ranger brides, how can we not?"

Emily giggles. "So, what does this girl you're eventually going to marry look like?"

"Why so curious?" he asks her, leaning on the display case, still grinning.

She hesitates, dabbing her finger in the remaining frosting on her cupcake. "It's hypothetical."

"Oh, right," Jayden drawls, clearly attempting to hide a laugh. "All hypothetical. Well, in that case, I can tell you that, hypothetically, if I were to marry a girl, she'd be – "

His voice trails off, and it occurs to Emily that he's staring right at her, his eyes a brighter shade of blue than she's ever seen before, more intense, and inducing more butterflies in her stomach. He swallows, the sound audible, looking away after a moment before finishing his train of thought. "I don't know."

"That's not an answer," she reminds him, leaning forward, abandoning her empty plate on the counter. "That's a cop-out."

Jayden studies the glass display case with interest. "I just – you go first."

Emily bites her lip to smother a giggle. "Fine. Hypothetically, if I were to marry somebody, he would have to be brave. And tall and handsome, but not dark. And sweet and selfless and compassionate. And – "

"What would he look like?" Jayden interrupts, a smile playing on his lips as he looks at her again.

She takes a moment to cool her blush. "I don't – that doesn't matter."

"Oh, come on," he grins. "You've got to have a type. Blond hair?"

"No," she answers, drawing out the word, trying to keep her eyes away from Jayden's fingers running through his (coffee-brown) hair. "Um, wouldn't the kids be too…blond?"

"Fair enough. Brown?" he guesses, and he's suddenly close enough that she can hear his grin in his every inflection and practically inhale his minty-fresh scent.

Emily glances away from him, her blush returning with a vengeance. "Maybe."

Jayden laughs. "Huh. That's funny. I always preferred blondes, myself." With one hand, he reaches out and snags a loose (blond) curl of hers, twisting it around his finger. For one split second, it feels like there's nobody else in that bakery, like Mike and Mia and Kevin and the employees are somewhere far away, where it's just her and Jayden and hardly an inch of space in between them –

He seems to realize what he's doing, then, and he hastily drops her curl and pulls away from her. "So…eyes?"

Emily takes a moment to catch her breath. The word _blue_ is on the tip of her tongue, but she has enough sense not to say that and spark something else between them while Mike is obviously watching them curiously from the table, and Mia and Kevin are about to join him.

"I think it's your turn," she says instead, and she has to try not to smile when he blushes either at the thought of telling her his ideal girl or at the fact that the other three Rangers are sending him knowing looks.

"Hypothetically," Jayden begins, tripping over the word a little as he looks anywhere except at her, "um – "

"Hey, are you two going to join us or what?" Mia pipes up, cutting across his half-formed sentence. "Jayden, I think your order's ready."

Jayden spins around to accept his slice of strawberry cake from the waitress, and Emily quickly hops off her stool and heads over to where Mike's pulling a chair up for her at their table, trying to ignore the butterflies swirling around in her stomach and the way Jayden's gaze darts over to her as he sits down next to Kevin and the way Mia sends her an annoyingly knowing, big-sister type of look.

"So, what were you two talking about?" Kevin asks cheerfully.

Mike snickers, Mia chuckles, and Jayden looks away.

Emily glances around at her friends and says, with not an ounce of mischief, "Hypothetical situations."

It's not like she's lying, anyway.

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**A/N: Hm, I'm really not too fond of this one, and I think I might write another, better version of this storyline later, but I felt in the mood for Jayden/Emily after that lovely bit of interaction at the end of Episode 6 :D Although, **_**why**_**, show, do you have to give me hints of Mike/Emily (cute) and Jayden/Mia (not so cute)?  
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**I hope you guys liked this, though! Please don't favorite without reviewing, and please review to tell me what you thought, more than just "so cute!" and/or "loved it!" :) Thanks!**


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